Infection Preventionists demonstrate great care and compassion for patients and staff, and can have a direct impact on a hospital’s reputation and bottom line. However, their influence is lessened due to the current structure of their role, which has them focused on manual surveillance.

Here are 6 ways healthcare organization need to change their structure and processes to unlock the hidden potential of your IP, and make the move to proactive infection prevention.

Move from reactive to proactive surveillance. IPs spend too much time on work (collecting data, manual surveillance, etc.) leaving little time for presence (education, outreach, etc.) and preventing HAIs.

Stop expecting IPs to do more with less. IPs feel overwhelmed and underappreciated. They're struggling as their organizations expect them to do more with less.

Change the culture at the top. Hospitals must include and engage staff, including IPs, in ideas for process improvements or new initiatives.

Help IPs feel more engaged. Hospitals need to help IPs spend more time on the floor doing staff and patient engagement, just-in-time education, auditing and rounding.

Invest in infection prevention to improve your hospital’s reputation & finances. Reducing HAIs is a priority for hospitals that want to distinguish themselves for quality and patient experience.

Let IPs experiment. IPs can help leadership explore new initiatives with the appropriate resources. They can provide meaningful data, stats and trends that will minimize costs.

Want more tips on how to unlock the hidden potential of your IP? Download our whitepaper and learn what IPs across North America told RL!

Previous Article

Things We Read and Loved: Inspiration

We love staying up to date on all things healthcare! Here are some stories we read this month that inspire ...

Next Article

Things We Read and Loved: What's in the news

We may be a big part of the patient safety and quality world, but we also know that healthcare landscape sp...